AuthorTopic: Erratic Movement of the Gas Gauge (Read 5290 times)

I've noticed the past couple of weeks (since the weather got cold out here in the east) that my gas gauge when not full is moving erratically (quarter of a tank swing of the needle). The low fuel light still comes on and the gauge still approximates what is in the tank (from what I can tell). I kinda of recall some info on this somewhere but I couldn't locate it when I went through the threads. Any ideas (other than keeping the tank full ..)

Thanks Arcticdude. I was thinking ground as well, but since it is so erratic (e.g. doesn't do it when the tank is full), I began thinking otherwise - like it might be a sensor (??) or something going bad. I think I'll wait until the weather clears up some and see if it takes care of itself. I'll be in Daytona in a couple of weeks - I can "test" it there.

my 2000 SERG gas guage just started to swing a 1/4 tank either way of where the gas level is. Its been doing this for past 6 months or so. 7 weeks back the bike failed to start, I could not hear the fuel pump coming on, I had the local dealership look at the fuel pump problem, told them if they in fact needed to reolace the fuel, then go ahead and check fuel guage. thinking maybe it was a bad sending unit, Picked the bike after several days, it did not seem to start right when I picked it up, I rode home about 8 miles, on the way home i noticed that the guage was now swinging a 1/2 tank of level as i accaelerated or decelerated, worse when I braked. The repair bill was in the amount of $400. Still had a bad fuel gauge and a non working fuel pump, dealer came an picked up the bike, Turns out to be fuelpump circut breaker was the fix. they re-diagnosed the fuel guage problem as a fualty guage on the dash, Picked up bike with new circut breaker, Gauge was on back order, took a trip of 800 miles with no gauge (tripometer only} Brought bike back for new guage...they installed it....no chrome bezel...kept looking at gauge as I rode it. Counldnt figure out what looked off...took me a few miles to figure out they diddnt bother to put the bezel on....new guage still swings worse than ever $75 for gauge and labor. Brought back again, they are now putting in another float assembly, They have now gotten harley Tech involved...Tech wants em to look for bad grounding. $500+ dollars and 7 weeks...still no gas gauge...is it just me orwhat...as I look in my manual...there doest seem to be that many moving parts involed in this this is third float assembly...one deffinition of insanity is: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

Mine does sort of the same thing. About the only time I think the gauge is fairly accurate is when the bike is stopped on level ground. After about 80 miles, the needle starts swinging back and forth with bike movement. But for me I guess that's not too much to deal with since most of the time the gauge is fogged up with moisture anyway.

Are you saying that your fuel gauge didn't swing back and forth when stopping or accelerating since day one? Mine always have, on a SEEG and on a Dyna. That is the nature of the beast, since Harley doesn't include a mechanical damping mechanism in the float assembly, nor do they have an electronic delay feature and/or special internal tank baffles to reduce slosh at the sending unit and fuel pickup like a typical automotive system. Once you use enough fuel to allow the float to actually move, acceleration will cause the fuel to move toward the rear of the tank and thus allow the float to drop. The opposite happens when you decelerate. Due to the shape of the tank, the affect gets more obvious as the fuel level gets lower. Depending on the amount of friction in the actual float pivot and sending unit, some gauges will react more quickly than others. However, I've never seen one that didn't vary on accel/decel.

Mine does the same. I'm switching over to a Delphi injection system which includes replacing the complete in-tank unit. Hope this fixes the gauge problem. I'll let you know.

Are you going with th HD Delphi? When I swapped over to Delphi, I kept my M&M tank guts. All I needed was the Zippers TB and kit, the Thayer Harness, Delphi coil, and Zippers ECM with Auto-Tune. The hardest part was mounting the Delphi coil and Zippers ECM. I had to have a metal worker come out, make up special brackets, and weld them on so I could mount the stuff.

mrigeo

Yea, I'm using stock Harley stuff. Modified a softail harness. Found out that the 2002-03 FL coil mount can be bought from HD; about $8. I could have used a Thayer fuel rail which would allow use of the M&M pump, but I found a complete Delphi tank unit on EBAY for $80. Lot less than the rail.

I've got my own TIG welder and do metal work, so am not concerned about mounting the ECM. Looks pretty straight forward.

WEEK THREE...the gas gauge saga continues, left bike with dealer 3 weeks ago...4 senders and one gauge later...still not fixed, they just want me to go away....but, I am dug in that they are going to fix this problem...they have called tech support twice and will do so again today....it seems to me that this cant that hard of a thing to fix.....gauge worked perfectly for almost 30,000 miles...it was only erratically about an 1/8th of a tank for the past few months....figured I would have them fix it an make it right. tech support had them check grounds..ok...and all connections related to gauge operation and they say it all checks out good. Plus they want to try to stick me with a bill that has done nothing to improve the problem. I figure if I leave it there long enough and stay on their tails....I will wear em down

Dealership called and once again claim that they have fixed the fuel gauge.....we'll see. they once again replaced the gauge...tally so far is:senders 4 Gauge's:3 Dealership:0.....Told them they need to deliver thr bike to me....I'm tired of having to disrupt wy wifes day to run me over there....so they will be delivering tommorrow AM....let ya know what the final score is

well, got the bike back....the gauge finally works...well sorta...it doesnt swing erratically any more. when the dropped of the bike it was reading a 1/4 tank, upon riding the bike, the gauge read pretty steady on accell and decell....so that was sucessfull. after going and filling the tank it doesnt quite go all the way over to full....so I will put some miles and hope the gauges drops as the miles go on.The problem left now is ....the bezel surounding the gauge does not match the rest of the guagesit has a sharp crome edge to it , as compared to the rooled edge of the gauges. so here's the question I would like to pose to all of you............am i just being to picky to expect that after a month or so of messing with thing, that they should have installed the exact correct gauge?